Healthy, Wealthy and Wise? at C3 Collaborating for Health’s Breakfast Seminar

In the summer, members of the CCH team attended C3 Collaborating for Health’s July breakfast seminar with Dr Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr Lustig, author of Fat Chance, a controversial book about the toxic role of sugar in health, spoke about de-bunking the 3 ‘myths’ of non-communicable diseases in his talk ‘Healthy, wealthy and wise?’. The first of these myths outlined by Dr Lustig was that the metabolic problems attributed to obesity can’t be wholly responsible for obesity, as the number of people with a BMI less than 30, and who are metabolically unhealthy is greater that the number of those who do have obesity and are unhealthy. The second myth that Dr Lustig sought to debunk was that ‘a calorie is not a calorie’ and that calories from sugar, particularly fructose, are the biggest problem. The finalmyth to be de-bunked was that of personal responsibility, and that we often do not have the means, access or knowledge to purchase healthy products. The talk generated a lively debate amongst attendees and sparkedsome thought provoking questions.